Erua is a small town on the
North Island Central Plateau in
New Zealand. The town is located on
New Zealand State Highway 4
State Highway 4 is the shortest of New Zealand's eight national highways. It runs north-south across rugged hill country, forming a short cut between two points on State Highway 3 thereby avoiding Taranaki and the coasts of the North and Sout ...
immediately to the south of the town of
National Park
A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...
. The town is administered by the
Ruapehu District Council and falls within the National Park Ward.
It abuts the Erua Forest, a area managed by the
Department of Conservation
An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment ...
. The Erua Forest includes
Tawa,
Rimu,
Miro and
Totara
''Podocarpus totara'' (; from the Maori-language ; the spelling "totara" is also common in English) is a species of podocarp tree endemic to New Zealand. It grows throughout the North Island and northeastern South Island in lowland, montane and ...
trees.
The New Zealand
Ministry for Culture and Heritage
The Ministry for Culture and Heritage (MCH; ) is the department of the New Zealand Government responsible for supporting the arts, culture, built heritage, sport and recreation, and broadcasting sectors in New Zealand and advising government on ...
explains that ''Erua'' means "two", from the Māori word "rua" for "two" and the prefix "e" which is used for numbers between two and nine.
Hunting is permitted in the Erua Forest. Pollen analysis was done on samples from the Erua Swamp. The area includes a singletrack bicycle trail.
Erua is a rural settlement bordered by protected forestland and is used as a base for exploring the area. The state protected forest was established in 1930.
See also
*
Mount Ruapehu
*
Erua railway station
Erua was a station on the North Island Main Trunk line, in the Ruapehu District of New Zealand. It served the small village of Erua. For a month in 1908 it was the terminus of the line from Auckland. Makatote Viaduct and tramway are about s ...
References
Geography of Manawatū-Whanganui
Populated places in Manawatū-Whanganui
Ruapehu District
{{ManawatuWanganui-geo-stub